


making a splash

by shinymailbox



Category: Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures, Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Ruby & Sapphire & Emerald | Pokemon Ruby Sapphire Emerald Versions
Genre: Awkward situations, Cute Kids, F/M, Fluff, Hugs, Mutual Pining, Showers, Summer, They're 14 in this so don't be fooled there is zero Spicy Content, They're wearing swimsuits btw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-16
Updated: 2018-03-16
Packaged: 2019-03-31 22:54:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13985064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinymailbox/pseuds/shinymailbox
Summary: And now she's standing face to face with the boy she's loved since she knew what love meant as the shower water drips down onto their heads.





	making a splash

**Author's Note:**

> I finally wrote!! I've been binging Pokespe the past few weeks and RS and GSC are my absolute favorites so far. Ruby and Sapphire are adorable, and I NEEDED to write something about them. Beautiful canon children.

It was only a matter of time until something managed to go awry. Hoenn’s hot summers and Sapphire’s recklessness were a notoriously bad combination, and this time was no exception, as both of their parents were out late for an event. He knew he shouldn’t have helped her find the six-year-old Slip n’ Slide in the shed behind Professor Birch’s house. Her smile is just too convincing, Ruby sighed under his breath as he slid on his shoes and trudged reluctantly to the scene before him. Sapphire thought it would be a good idea to cover herself and the slide in soap, forgetting just how steep the hill near Ruby’s house really was. And now, she was in her swimsuit sprawled in the dirt and mud, facing the sky, no less than three feet from the end of the Slip n’ Slide.

“‘M fine,” she growled as she noticed Ruby’s face in her peripheral vision. She was still lying in the mess of grass and earth she had landed in, much to her friend’s chagrin. Her ears picked up a slight sigh that escaped from his lips as he kneeled down beside her face, grabbing her hand with that gentle touch of his to support her as she rose to her feet.

“You're covered in dirt and scrapes,” he commented as soon as she was on her feet, prompting Sapphire to snap back at him with a “no shit, Sherlock.”

After a short period of thinking, Ruby lightly grabbed her arm again, and she didn't know if it was her body or her heart that jumped. His expression was that of deep thought when he turned to face his house and said, “we’re going to have to get you cleaned up, you know.”

Sapphire jerked her arm out of his grasp, which was easy with how light his hold was. “I don't ‘have to’ get cleaned up. I’m fine.”

He retorted with a “no, you're not.” Before Sapphire could object, he slid off his flip-flops and asked her to put them on, grimacing when she obliged and the shoes met with an onslaught of filth. “You're coming with me and you're getting a shower, because you look like a landslide victim and I don’t want your scrapes to get infected,” he said rather bluntly, grabbing her hand in his and leading her to the front porch. “You… can leave you- my shoes on the porch. Don't touch anything inside the house, please?”

“No promises,” she said slyly, enjoying a good laugh when Ruby jokingly turned his head to roll his eyes at her.

\---

“Nice shower curtain, pretty boy,” Sapphire taunts the moment she steps into his bathroom. “‘S _sophisticated_.”

“I'm surprised you can pronounce that perfectly,” Ruby adds while gathering bath towels in his arms and laying them next to the shower, which is one of those two-in-one shower-baths that you always seem to see at hotels. “Regardless, don't you dare insult Skitty like that again.”

“Even Trapinch’s cuter.”

“You shut your mouth,” he laughs, motioning for Sapphire to get into the shower. She can practically feel her heart beating in her chest.

“Ain't you gonna leave, Ruby?” she asks from behind the shower curtain, though she probably already knows the answer.

“I don't trust you to get yourself clean,” he chuckles. Before she can protest, he points out the fact that they’re both wearing swimsuits. “It's not like we're doing anything scandalous anyway. I'm not gonna see any more of you than I usually do,” he reassures her, though she already gets the point.

Sapphire feels her skin prickle when she hears the unmistakable crinkle of a shower curtain opening. She turns around to see Ruby, in nothing but his swim trunks, stepping in to the shower to help her, and she hopes she doesn’t audibly gasp. “Feels like a part of you’s missing without yer hat,” she laughs as she tries to avert her eyes from his (stupidly beautiful) hair.

“Feels like that to me too,” he says with a grin, and she wants to slap him for making her feel so _weak_. “Aren't you going to turn the shower on?” Ruby asks, tapping his ‘friend’ on the shoulder and trying to ignore the way her cheeks redden in response.

“I'm gettin’ to it,” she replies with a roll of her eyes, turning around and grasping the faucet knob in her dirty and calloused hand.

“Yikes! Sapphire, that's freezing!” Ruby complains, but Sapphire shuts him up by reminding him that he wanted to ‘make sure she was okay’ in the first place. He reached from behind the shower curtain for a washcloth and soap, which he handed off to Sapphire.

“I don't want yer gross lady soap,” she groans, trying to hand the washcloth back to him.

“This isn’t even that feminine, Sapph, it's apple blossom scented. And it's all I have.” Reluctantly, she takes the soap bottle back and lathers some of its contents onto the washcloth.

“Don't stare, creep,” she snaps playfully, and Ruby retorts by claiming that he’s only there to make sure she’s fine and ‘actually clean’. When she’s done and Ruby no longer feels the need to look away from her, he looks her up and down before taking the washcloth from her hands.

“You're going to get an infection if you leave that much dirt on you,” he shrugs as he gently rubs the washcloth along Sapphire’s arm, moving onto the other one when he’s satisfied with his work.

“I don't know where you’d be without me,” he muses accidentally audibly while he scrubs her sides with an intense look on his face. Sapphire decides it’s kind of cute, but she just wants him to be done with this so she no longer has the urge to punch him in the face for no reason.

“I think I can do my legs,” she says, a little too quickly, a little too nervously, and she curses herself under her breath. Ruby’s eager to hand the washcloth off to her, and when she’s finished, he’s shocked that she’s managed to scrub all the dirt off of her legs. He's also a little shocked because since when does Sapphire have really nice legs?

“Are we done yet?” she sighs, and the fact that he’s holding a bottle of shampoo tells her that they’ve still got more to go. “Lemon scented? Really?”

“What have lemons done to you?” he jokingly asks, lathering shampoo between his palms. When he finally runs his shampoo-covered fingers through Sapphire’s hair, she doesn't know whether she wants to kick him or lean in and kiss him. She decides that it's probably best if she does neither.

“Your hair is a mess,” he comments while his fingers work his way through the numerous knots she’s too indifferent about to brush out. “I bet you’d be even prettier if you took care of your hair.”

“I don't know whether I’m shocked or flattered that the World’s Prettiest Boy finds me pretty,” Sapphire coughs nervously, and she can practically feel Ruby’s face burning even though he’s only touching her with his hands.

“It's- a fact?” he stammers, trying to justify his words. Sapphire finds this hilarious, and once again she’s conflicted over whether or not she’s glad that Ruby’s there to catch her when she loses her balance.

“Thanks,” she mutters, standing up straight again and allowing Ruby to move his hands from her shoulders to her hair again. Ruby’s eyes widen when he announces that he’s finally worked out all of the knots.

“Finally! Now-” he’s cut off by Sapphire, who sharply tells him that she knows how to rinse her hair. Ruby doesn't doubt her, as he instead pulls the shower curtain aside a little bit to climb out. “I've got a towel waiting for you when you're done,” Sapphire hears from the other side of that dumb Skitty-themed shower curtain, which she swiftly whisks away after she turns the shower head off. The girl nearly stumbles over the edge of the bath when she climbs out, letting a short laugh escape her lips as she does so. As soon as her second foot is on the mat in front of the bath, she finds herself wrapped in a green bath towel. And she’s also wrapped in her crush’s arms.

“Are you gonna say thanks?” he says, his voice closer to her ear than it usually is (and Sapphire thinks she’s actually losing her balance.)

“Nope,” she replies with a giggle, and Ruby hasn't seen her this _soft_ … ever. At least, he can't remember any time where she had been like this.

“Well, now that you're sparkling clean, it would be unfair to leave the shower in this awful state.” Sapphire looks back to see the shower absolutely covered in the same filth that was on her ten or fifteen minutes ago. “Wanna help me?”

“Yer the one who wanted to do this in the first place, so I’d say it’s yer problem now,” Sapphire remarks. Ruby pauses for a moment before shrugging and picking up the materials needed to clean the shower.

_She looks so beautiful when she’s not covered in dir- you know what? I can't think of a time when she isn't beautiful._   Ruby finally snaps back to reality when he realizes that once Sapphire, who is treating her remaining scrapes with bandages he’d left near the bathroom sink, notices him staring, he won’t be hearing the end of it for a week.

 


End file.
